Spider-Man, Obama team-up proves hot seller for comic store

Webbed superhero prevents villain from disrupting inauguration

Amy McNeal stocks new copies of the third printing of the Marvel Comic The Amazing Spider-Man featuring Barack Obama on Jan. 28 at Alliance Comics in Bowie. The first printing of this comic sold out the day it arrived in stores.

Plenty of American presidents, from Richard Nixon to Bill Clinton, have graced the colorful pages of comic books. But none have elicited quite the rabid fan response that has made The Amazing Spider-Man 583 featuring President Barack Obama a top seller at a Bowie comic book store.

"The demand for it has been really tremendous," said Amy McNeal, owner of Alliance Comics in Bowie.

The store sold out of the 380 first and second edition printings of the comic that McNeal ordered within minutes. On Jan. 28, as she and her husband, Gerard McNeal, were unpacking a shipment of 400 third edition printings of the comic, customers called the store checking on the status of the comic's delivery. By 1 p.m., the waiting list for the comic was already 125 names long.

"This is somewhat unexpected for us and the industry," Amy McNeal said.

The Spider-Man comic features the superhero preventing the interruption of Obama's inauguration by a super villain, complete with a Spider-Man – Obama fist bump at the end. On the night of Obama's selection as the Democratic presidential nominee, he and wife Michelle Obama exchanged a fist bump on stage and ignited a firestorm of discussion in the media.

Gerard McNeal said with 800 third and 400 fourth edition printings already ordered for distribution through their Bowie and Silver Spring stores, the Spider-Man comic will easily be the largest volume of comic book he has ordered in 13 years in business. By comparison, the next largest shipment the store ordered was 600 copies of the first issue of the Transformers comic to be published in 15 years back in 2001.

"The economy was so much bigger back then," Gerard McNeal said. "So in a recessed economy, this is a big deal."

The limited first edition prints went for $40 at Alliance, while the rest are being sold for the cover price of $3.99. First prints are already for sale on eBay for as much as $99.

While some of the customers who bought the Obama comic are avid comic book enthusiasts, Amy McNeal said the majority of the people who bought the comic were not regular customers. As Obama's pop-culture worthiness has demonstrated its might through the sale of thousands of trinkets made in his image, McNeal said many customers bought the comic as a keepsake or to be able to share it with their children.

Inspecting one of the Spider-Man comics, but discarding it after noticing a crease through the cover, College Park resident Matthew Crouch purchased two pristine comics straight out of their shipping boxes after noticing the stacks for sale in the store.

"I might as well get one while the getting's good I guess," Crouch said.

The comics would make a good collector's item, he said, adding he didn't intend to sell them.